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McCann Technical Prepares For Upcoming School Year
By Jack Guerino, iBerkshires Staff
02:12AM / Monday, August 08, 2016
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Principal Justin Kratz fill in the McCann School Committee on the incoming freshman numbers and summer school results.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — McCann Technical School administrators are preparing for the upcoming school year and welcoming a small uptick in incoming freshmen.  

Principal Justin Kratz told the School Committee on Thursday that 144 eighth-graders have shown an interest in going to McCann.

Although 144 students committed to McCann, only 117 actually sent in the paperwork solidifying their attendance. Kratz said this is normal.

"This is pretty typical. Right now we have 117 kids that have actually sent in their paperwork," the principal said. "I am hoping we will be high 120s, low 130s but until all of the dust settles, we won’t know for sure. Some students might change their minds."

Kratz said paperwork comes in every day and potential students can hand it on the first day of school. He said a letter will go out soon as a reminder.

He said if all 144 students decide to go to McCann, the school will be at its max. Last year's incoming freshmen class was 113. This year's projected amount would bring the school's population to 495.

Kratz added that 75 of the 144 potential freshmen attended a welcoming event at McCann in July.

"It was more of a socializing event, and we want to get them in the building and get them to know some of their classmates and some of their teachers," he said.

"We want to keep McCann in their minds over the summer ... and make sure they are still coming here in the fall."

As for the summer, Kratz said the school has been busy with two different summer programs.

"It has been a very busy summer. Busy in a different way that it is year round," he said. "We have been getting stuff done and there has been a lot of stuff going on in the building."

He said this year the traditional summer program for students who want another shot at passing a class had 17 students.  

"They came in and remediated their classes," Kratz said. "It went very well: they are no longer failing those classes."

Kratz said he made it a goal to reduce student failures by 10 percent. He said by the end of the school year it was reduced by 46 percent, which he attributed this to a new education software and teachers' efforts.

Eight more students who did not attend summer school need remedial work, but they are mostly underclassmen, which means they have time to catch up.

"It is not ideal but it's workable," Kratz said. "Our high-ticket items are our upper classman because we don't want them going into senior year with a failure."

He said the second program was for the possible incoming freshmen who have not met McCann's academic standards. Nine students participated in that program.

"Their behavior is fine, other parts of their application are fine, but they just for whatever reason came up some points short in their classes," Kratz said.

"We offered them an opportunity to come in and remediate some of these skills and get ready for high school. All nine of them showed up every day and worked hard."

He added that the program was helpful because the administration got to know students who may need more support.

The School Committee voted to accept the finalized the $9 million fiscal 2017 budget.

Superintendent James Brosnan said there was a small increase in Chapter 70 funding and a decrease in the municipal minimum calculation.

"There are no changes in the budget and no line item changes because the budget has already been approved by all of our communities," Brosnan said. "Overall for us, it was a gain of about $4,000, which is not a huge amount of money but I am not turning anything back."

He said this budget is the leanest budget he has ever put forward and he does not anticipate any larger capital projects this year.

Nonetheless, he said it is going to be a great school year.

The School Committee also approved some policy updates and changes to the school's regulations.

Brosnan said the school makes these changes every year to ensure policies are consistent with state standards and recommendations.

"This is a good blast of about 15 to 16 policies that we did, and I thought the only time we could really sit down and try to do this was during the summer," he said. "I think that we did a good job at this. Is it perfect? No, but it is a heck of a lot better than it was."

Brosnan said the policies will continue to be updated as the state squares away regulations on ever changing topics such as technology.

He said one major change is that all student activity funds will be kept in separate accounts under one person. He said in the past, teachers and advisers in charge of specific student groups maintained the accounts.

This change includes booster clubs and money that graduating classes have set aside. He said sometimes a class president will come back and asked for funds for a class reunion or something of the like. However, over the past few years graduating classes have not saved any money.

"We have a very good tight system now and we will have an even tighter system this way," he said. "We have good eyes on it."

The board approved a 25 cent increase to school lunch this year to keep up with rising costs and fewer students and faculty eating lunch.

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